What is the best way to teach a foreign language?
A strong Part 3 answer takes a position in the first clause, supports it with one reason and one concrete case, and then names where it stops being true. Around a minute.
The question, as the examiner gives it
What is the best way to teach a foreign language?
no preparation, about 1 minute to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 124 words at a natural pace — roughly what 60 seconds holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record your own answer first. A model you have read three times comes out with a flattened rhythm, and examiners are trained to hear exactly that. Read it afterwards for the vocabulary and the shape, not to memorise the sentences.Speaking from the beginning, even when it is embarrassing, because that is the part that never happens by accident. I had eight years of English at school built almost entirely around grammar exercises, and I could construct a conditional sentence on paper and not order a coffee. The reason, I think, is that speaking is the only component that cannot be assessed cheaply, so it is the one that gets dropped. What works, in my experience, is a very high volume of comprehensible listening plus regular obligatory speaking with somebody patient. Grammar is genuinely useful, but as an explanation of a pattern you have already met rather than as the route in. Learning the rule first and the language afterwards is the wrong order.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- embarrassing
four syllables with the stress on the second
- construct
the verb, stressed on the second syllable
- conditional
four syllables with the stress on the second
- component
three syllables with the stress on the second
- comprehensible
five syllables with the stress on the third
- obligatory
five syllables with the stress on the second
- assessed
past participle with the stress on the second syllable
How a strong answer is built
- 1State the method in the first clause.
- 2Give personal evidence of the alternative failing.
- 3Explain why schools do it the other way.
- 4Describe what works and place grammar correctly.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “What is the best way to teach a foreign language?” be?
About 60 seconds. Long enough for the answer plus a reason or an example, short enough that the examiner can get through the rest of the set.
Should I memorise the model answer?
No. Record your own version first, then read the model for the shape and the vocabulary. A memorised answer changes rhythm and pace noticeably, and examiners are trained to hear it — it usually costs more than the better wording gains.
Does sayit score this answer?
It scores what a microphone can observe: an estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.
What the band on your result means
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.One question a day until your test
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